Petition is available here -
http://sumofus.org/campaigns/tjs-tomatoes/
You know Trader Joe’s – the grocery chain that bills itself as an ethical alternative to the big-name stores? Well, it turns out they’re not so friendly to the workers who pick the tomatoes they sell to us.
Trader Joe’s CEO is refusing to sign the Fair Food Agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a group of farm workers in Florida who have successfully pressured corporate giants like Taco Bell and McDonald’s to agree to ensure that farm workers in their supply chains get treated humanely and get paid at least one penny more per pound of tomatoes they pick.
That’s right, we’re talking about just a couple of pennies more per pound of tomatoes – an insignificant cost increase for Trader Joe’s and its customers – could help thousands of farm workers get paid a fair wage. But Trader Joe’s is digging in its heels.
You can use the form at the right to send a message to TJ’s CEO yourself.
The people who pick the tomatoes we eat make as little as $50 for a 12-hour workday, picking ton after ton of tomatoes. According to the Immokalee Workers:
“Like textile workers at the turn of the last century, Florida tomato harvesters are still paid by the piece. The average piece rate today is 50 cents for every 32-lbs of tomatoes they pick, a rate that has remained virtually unchanged since 1980. As a result of that stagnation, a worker today must pick more than 2.25 tons of tomatoes to earn minimum wage in a typical 10-hour workday — nearly twice the amount a worker had to pick to earn minimum wage thirty years ago. Most farmworkers today earn less than $12,000 a year.”
Use the form at the right to tell TJ’s to pay the workers who pick their tomatoes at least one more penny per pound, and to ensure that those workers are treated fairly. CIW members will deliver our messages directly to Trader Joe’s when they march to Trader Joe’s new store near Immokalee, FL.
More Information:
What is the Fair Food Agreement?
According to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers who are negotiating Fair Food Agreements with various corporations, “the agreements require those companies to demand more humane labor standards from their Florida tomato suppliers (including a zero tolerance policy for slavery), to pay a price premium for more fairly produced tomatoes, and to shift purchases to growers who meet those higher standards. Several Florida tomato growers have shown their early support for this effort by agreeing to pass along the pay premium to their tomato harvesters, and to abide by a code of conduct under which workers have a voice and slavery is not tolerated.”
Is slavery a reality for some tomato workers?
Farm labor bosses have repeatedly been brought to court for their treatment of workers, including most recently in 2008 for beating their workers who refused to work or tried to leave, holding their workers in debt, and chaining and locking workers inside U-Haul trucks as punishment. The U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the 2008 case called the situation “slavery, plain and simple.” If Trader Joe’s signed the Fair Food Agreement, they would be guaranteeing that none of their tomatoes come from growers who treat their workers as modern-day slaves, as well as pay a fair price for the tomatoes they sell.
Who else signed the Agreement?
Fair Food Agreements have been reached between CIW and McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, and Yum Brands, as well as foodservice providers Compass Group, Aramark, Sodexo, and Bon Appetit Management Company, and grocery store chain Whole Foods.
Why hasn’t Trader Joe’s signed?
On October 21, 2011, Trader Joe’s released a statement saying that they would not sign the Agreement, even though they agreed with it in principle and had implemented the basic requirements already. They said, essentially, “trust us, we’re doing it right”, but this is unverifiable. Without signing the agreement, Trader Joe’s has no way of knowing if the growers they’re purchasing from meet CIW’s standards; TJ’s would have to rely on the grower’s word alone, and what grower is going to volunteer the fact that they don’t treat their workers fairly or pay their workers a reasonable wage?
Why does this matter for Immokalee farm workers?
The Immokalee farm workers, a coalition of people who work on farms in the Immokalee region of Florida (where most of the tomatoes are grown in the US) are organizing because they are some of the lowest paid workers in the country, often making less than $12,000 a year. They work ten-hour days picking tomatoes in order to pick enough (2.25 tons) to make minimum wage. They have no rights to collective bargaining or overtime pay. Each penny a pound increase that they have won brings more people out of poverty, and each buyer requiring workplace protections ensures more people are treated fairly in their jobs and fewer farm workers are brought to this country as slave labor.